After high school graduation, I thought the hardest thing to cope with was going to be going off to college, and being away from my friends. It has come to my realization that the most difficult, but most exciting times still lie ahead.
Like a lot of people I surround myself with, my friends are the most important people in my life. There's nothing I wouldn't do for them, and I always make sure that they know how special they are to me. Over the past two years, I have stayed close with most of my friends from home and I am lucky enough to be able to see them a decent amount during the school year. Next year, however; everything is going to change. Some of us are moving into apartments at our respective colleges, some of us are transferring schools, and some of my younger friends are going to college for the first time in other states. Some of us will be as far away as eight hours from each other, which is something I haven't prepared myself for yet but I just know that although so many things are changing, one thing that isn't is the place my friends hold in my heart.
I'm the type of friend who doesn't like to lose touch with people I care about. I'm always sending text messages, although sometimes unanswered to my friends to stay connected, and Facebook group messages have come to be a saving grace. I live for Skype dates and long phone calls that make distance just a little bit easier to deal with. I thank technology for allowing my friends and me to stay as close as we are -- and I'm thanking it in advance for helping us stay connected next year when we are scattered across the country.
Right now, my friends and I are lucky enough to see each other close to once a month, but starting next year, the time between visits is going to be much longer. I already anticipate grabbing Starbucks with my friends when we are back home for the holidays and jamming out in the car to everything from One Direction to Fetty Wap. I am so excited to plan visits to Slippery Rock, Kent State, Bowling Green, New York University and the University of Cincinnati, and I'm even more excited for my friends to come visit me in my first apartment in Columbus.
Above all else, I am excited to see what the future holds for my amazing, wonderful, and intelligent friends. I cannot wait to begin hearing about internships and practicums, and I cannot wait to tell my friends about my academic endeavors as a journalism student. All of us have so many great things going for us, and I cannot wait to see where we end up in the next few years. I want to close this article with a message to the greatest friends a girl could ever ask for:
To the truest bluest pals in the world,
The future holds so much for all of us, and now is the time to take the world by storm and show what we are capable of. I know in my heart that all of us are destined for greatness and the time is upon us to take hold of that. No amount of distance can break the bonds we have formed, but we need to prepare for a little bit of bending. You know that this is going to be the hardest for me to accept, but for once I want to prove you wrong and show you how ready I am for this next chapter in our lives. (This doesn't change the fact that I will still probably cry a lot.) I want each of you to know how proud I am of you, and that I am always rooting for your success even from a distance. As this semester comes to a close and the summer begins, let's take it upon ourselves to make these next few months ones to remember. I want to leave you all with a cliche but relevant quote from my favorite musical, "Wicked": "Who can say that I've been changed for the better? But, because I knew you, I have been changed for good." Thank you, all of you, for changing me for good.
All the love in the whole wide world,
Sar.
